Tory peer: use fire engines can take patients to hospital if ambulances take too long

Friday 29 November 2013 11:29 BST

Upset stomach: Lord Selsdon told peers of his treatment in Cairo

Fire engines should be used to take people to hospital to avoid them waiting for ambulances, a Conservative peer has urged.

Lord Selsdon spoke during a debate on A&E units, including plans to close or downgrade London casualty departments.

“I live in France part of the time, and there we do not call the health service when there is a problem, we call the fire brigade,” he said. “They like exercises and they send a small fire engine — if the patient is a woman, there will be a woman with them — and they get patients to hospitals more quickly than ambulances. There must be further thought on this.”

Lord Selsdon, who has a vineyard in Provence, said doctors in nations such as Egypt helped patients where they fell ill, rather than them being taken to hospital: “I once suffered an extremely bad upset stomach in Cairo. The A&E man arrived on a moped with one working cylinder and a flat tyre and cured me within a couple of hours.”

London Ambulance Service Director of Operations Jason Killens said: “We do not think there is a role for fire services taking patients to hospital, but they could form part of an emergency response, alongside our staff, to immediately life-threatening calls.”